'Trial Week' - A Near-Foolproof Method to Hiring the Right People

The trial week of interviewing involves having the potential employer meet with you for a short period of time each day to get to know you and your qualifications.

This is followed by a more in-depth interview process, which often lasts a few days.

At the end of the trial week, both the employer and the potential employee will have a better understanding of whether or not they would be a good fit for one another.

If both parties are satisfied, then an offer may be extended. Otherwise, the employer may choose to pursue other candidates.

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Trial week can improve the odds of hiring well

Hiring the wrong person can be costly. You might have to pay severance, you spent time and money training them, it might be disruptive to the rest of the team, and so on.

The cost of hiring wrong can be large… but easy enough to avoid.

Here’s a simple way to avoid hiring the wrong people

Try the trial week system.

Popularized by David Rusenko, Jr. of Weebly, it relies on the following logic:

Resumés are mostly useless

People exaggerate a lot or outright lie.

Some great talent doesn’t interview well

Many are introverted or not great in the moment.

Most people will reject an awkward interviewer even when it might not actually indicate much about their ability to do the job.

Interviewing is full of biases

People tend to be biased toward those like themselves.

Where trial week comes in

Trial week is exactly what it sounds like: Before you give someone a job offer, have them work – fully paid, of course – at your company for a week before extending the offer.

This helps you differentiate between people who interview well and people who work well, and gives you a sense of how that person will work with your team.

Bottom line

It may do a lot of good to have a “trial period” where we get a feel for the way someone works before making a long-term commitment.

Not everyone will be open to this, but it’s a near-foolproof way to make sure you’re hiring the right talent.

And isn’t that worth making time for?

‘Trial Week’ – A Near-Foolproof Method to Hiring the Right People

Trial week can improve the odds of hiring well